Ryūra (龍羅, "Dragon") was an exceedingly strong and fiercely, violent warrior and the leader of the demon band known as the Four War Gods (Shitōshin). Many years ago, Ryūra and his comrades invaded the legendary island Hōraijima and caused much destruction. In desperation, the island's high-level priestess, Lady Kanade, had sealed the Four War Gods' mystical spheres of power inside a jeweled comb box and hid it inside the Cauldron of Resonance. Without their full strength and abilities, the Four War Gods were forced to remain on the island until they could retrieve the comb box.

Eventually, the Four War Gods initiated a plan that would allow them to fully regain their original strength by using a mindless cloned priestess. During the course of executing this plan, however, the Four War Gods were opposed by many opponents, among them the half-demon, Inuyasha.

Contents

Many ages ago, the island of Hōraijima was a sanctuary for humans and demons alike. The two groups had existed in peace and harmony for many years and intermingled, giving rise to a sizable population of hanyō. The existence of a hanyō community earned contempt from demons, so to protect themselves, the people of Hōraijima created the powerful Cauldron of Resonance, which generated a time barrier that separated Hōraijima from the outside world. However, every fifty years the time shield had weakened, and the island reappeared, rendering it vulnerable to raids by demons from the outside world. The Four War Gods were among the many demons which despised the people of Hōraijima, and one day decided to attack the island during its brief vulnerable period and annihilate the inhabitants[1]

The humans and demons of Hōraijima were no match for the Four War Gods, among whom was the demon Kyōra. The village became engulfed in flame and many villagers fell in battle. However, Ryūra and the other War Gods had neglected to kill the island priestess, Kanade. Lady Kanade was quite powerful, but not even she could defeat the combined power of the Four War Gods. In desperation, Lady Kanade was able to seal away the power spheres which granted the four demons their immense power inside a jeweled comb box. With this accomplished, Kanade leapt inside the Cauldron of Resonance, putting the box beyond the reach of any of the Four War Gods. With the island already conquered, Ryūra and the others established themselves temporarily on Hōraijima, until they could find a solution to their missing powers.[1]

In time, the Four War Gods discovered that by throwing live half-demons into the Cauldron of Resonance, they could retrieve a portion of their powers trapped inside. In order to survive, the War Gods corrupted the Cauldron with their demonic energy and put their mark on each of the island's half-demons and established a powerful demonic barrier around the island. Anyone who carried the mark would be unable to pass outside the barrier. In this way, the Four War Gods were able to keep the half-demons enslaved, sacrificing them one by one whenever their demonic abilities needed further strengthening and rejuvenation.

Nevertheless, this was a temporary solution at best, since the War Gods could never retrieve their full powers; furthermore, if they left the island, they would slowly fade away from a lack of demonic energy and die. In order to stay alive, the Four War Gods would have to remain on the island, where they could retain access to the Cauldron. But, due to the slowing effect of the time barrier, the Four War Gods could minimize the amount of power they lost, meaning that they would only need to sacrifice a half-demon whenever the barrier itself weakened. Nevertheless, until they could retrieve the jeweled comb box from within the Cauldron, the Shitōshin would be trapped on the island forever.[1]

Taking the assumed role of leader of the Shitōshin, Ryūra is extremely confident in his own strength and abilities, as well as the immense demonic powers of his three comrades. Arrogant and sadistic, he enjoys causing suffering whenever the opportunity arises, going out of his way to slaughter the half-demons on Horai Island before leaving. Much like his 'brother' Kyōra, Ryūra seeks powerful opponents to battle. He expresses his disappointment in Inuyasha for not being as strong as he had hoped, finding him weak and unchallenged. Ryūra, like the strongest and most powerful demons, despises half demons, including them among the ranks of humans, branding them as weak and mundane compared to the superior powers of the Four War Gods. He, along with the other three war gods in their full-fledged combined form, are ultimately defeated by this assumption of weakness in half-demons.

Master Swordsman: Ryūra has shown himself to be a very skilled swordsman as he was able to easily overpower Inuyasha wielding Tessaiga with his equally large swords and push the latter around with simple slashes. His dual wielding swordsmanship allows him to apply the same skill and power that Inuyasha puts into Tessaiga to his Fujinga and Raijinga equally and he even called Tessaiga within Inuyasha's hands wasteful.

Immense Demonic Power: As the leader of the Four War Gods and a powerful dragon Daiyokai, Ryūra is extremely powerful where even when most of his power through his power sphere is sealed away by the priestess, Kanade, he is still capable of dominating the likes of Inuyasha to the point where his power started diminishing before Kagome intervened. When his power sphere returned, Ryūra became even more powerful where he pushed Inuyasha to the point of hopelessness though through sheer determination, Inuyasha proved to be stronger and defeated Ryūra.

Ryūra's swords: Fūjinga (bottom) & Raijinga (top).

Aerokinesis and Electrokinesis: Ryūra has the elemental ability to create, manipulate, and control the air and wind, thunder and lightning; though it is unknown if he has this ability on his own, or if it is because he wields the demonic weapons-Wind Blade & Thunder Blade.

Lightning Storms: He is seen multiple times conjuring extremely powerful storm clouds, blasting his enemies away with strong bolts of lightning/electricity, in a very similar fashion to Hiten.

Wind Breezes and Slashes: When he confronts the half-demons on Horai Island, he displays the ability to simply whisk his opponents away if they are a nuisance, showing off his air/wind-based abilities. Also before that, Ryūra was able to instantaneously create invisible wind slashes that sliced apart some of the houses behind Inuyasha along with the half-demon before he could react.

Mark of the Shitōshin: As a War God, Ryūra can brand another being particularly that of a half-demon with the mark of the four war gods by slashing across their backs so that if they enter or are already on Horai Island then they are unable to leave. Every fifty years that passes the mark glows and causes immense pain to the victim that acts as a sign that a new sacrifice must be made so that the War Gods can reattain some of their sealed powers. However if a War God is killed then one mark disappears until all of them are gone thus allowing the half-demon to leave Horai Island of their own wish.

Enhanced Strength: Even when most of powers is sealed away by Kanade, Ryūra is strong to easily repel Inuyasha wielding Tessaiga away with just slash of his sword and the latter couldn't even compete in raw strength either. When his power sphere returned, Ryūra became strong enough to easily send Inuyasha flying around and casually broke apart the diamonds created from the latter's Kongōsōha after defending from it with his arms alone just by flexing his arm muscles.

Enhanced Speed: Ryūra has shown himself to very fast where he immediately conjured a tornado from his wind blade just after pushing Inuyasha back during their initial battle before the half-demon could react to further push him back. During their second battle, Ryūra was able to create invisible wind slashes that sliced both Inuyasha and the houses behind him before he even noticed after regaining his power sphere.

Immense Endurance: Ryūra is extremely durable and resilient where he emerged unscathed from his initial battle with Inuyasha and during the second Inuyasha couldn't even damage him before the final clash. Ryūra even endured the Kongōsōha without suffering any damage from it just after defending against the attack with his arms alone while Naraku couldn't defend from it even with his powerful barriers.

Fūjinga and Raijinga: These are the demonic swords of wind and thunder that are also Ryūra's signature weapons which he wields with masterful use. When used together, they can create and command wind and lightning as an extension of Ryūra's innate abilities with them. They are very durable where the wind blade can easily block a sacred arrow from Kagome though it left a burn mark on the blade which later disappeared however they broke when Inuyasha slashed through them with Tessaiga. Though they reappeared in the hands of the merged War God but were destroyed again after the merged War God was killed by Inuyasha and Kagome.

Tornado: Ryūra can create a spiraling tornado straight at his enemies.

Earth Dragon Gale: A defensive technique where Ryūra creates a spiraling dome of wind that can easily repel the Kaze no Kizu even when his power sphere is sealed away. Overall it resembles a barrier created from wind compressed together rather a barrier generated by Yoki.

Dragon Lightning: This technique is similar to that of Sesshomaru's initial Dragon Strike where he has lightning strikes his enemies as well. Though there are some differences where instead generating the lightning directly from his blade and slashing it forward, Ryūra points the tip of his thunder blade towards the sky and it calls down a lightning bolt directly from a cloud to electrocute his opponents.

Wind Blast: Ryūra can have his wind blade send a blast of formless wind that can cause damage to those caught in its path.

Power Sphere: Like the other War Gods, Ryūra has most of his powers placed within a blue sphere which is placed on his forehead between his eyes. This is rather a disadvantage since if his sphere is taken from him then his power diminishes and must sacrifice a half-demon once every fifty years or else his power and form dissipates.

Recombination: Later on it's also revealed that the power sphere is actually a container for his spirit as when he was defeated and killed by Inuyasha, he managed to avoid complete death by having his power sphere hold his soul to merge with his brothers to create a merged War God.

Coincidentally, Seiryū is one of the demon ninjas under Hoshiyomi. Each of these four ninjas have, like the Four War Gods, an affiliation with one of the Four Sacred Animals. Seiryū has many reptilian features and mannerisms which signify his affiliation with the Azure Dragon, besides his name. However, he appears to be more snake or lizard-like, and has no obvious connections with a dragon, unlike Ryūra.

Similar to Menōmaru, the style of dressed employed by the three humanoid members of the Shitōshin is very Chinese in appearance, and does not reflect any Japanese influences. This reflects the Chinese origins of the Hōrai Island myth, known in China as Mount Penglai.

Ryūra's Japanese seiyū also provides the voice for Hiten, the eldest of the Thunder Brothers. It is worth noting that both characters have long, braided ponytails, red eyes, and use lightning-based attacks.

He also has some similarities to Bankotsu. Both are the leaders of a murderous group that care for each other and in a way, are all united in a final fight with Inuyasha; Bankotsu took the shards of all the Band of Seven into himself and Ryūra and the other Four War Gods combined into a single form.